Thread: Hints & Tips??

Originally Posted by tattooedlady

no matter how many times I ask them to look at my DD again they tell me I don't need to increase it

If you want to increase your payment, you can do. The people on the phone can advise that they don't think you need to pay more but they CANNOT refuse to put your DD up. If they do, ask to speak to a supervisor. With the recent price hikes, it's better that you do put your DD up slightly cos what you've been paying over the summer probably won't cover the winter as it usually would.

Thats fair enough but the thought of £100 a month on gas & electric isn't appealing or very easy to budget for but I may have no choice shortly, I only get an actual bill every 6 months which probably also doesn't help.

Oh and the new advert saying that existing customers can freeze their prices seems to be complete bull

Can you not submit meter readings online with NPower? I do that with British Gas and it means that every bill is actual. They tell me when I submit the reading how much gas & elec (in £ value) we've used since the last bill and that way I know whether I'm on track with the payments or not. If I'm not, I just increase slightly so that by the next bill, we're steady. My payments fluctuate between £80 and £100 a month depending on where we are in the year and I don't find we need to go any higher than that. British Gas do make it ridiculously easy to keep on top of things online though - probably cos it means that the miserable so and so's in the call centres don't have to do any work

I do submit readings so it is an accurate bill but it doesn't tell me any prices until the 6 month point, I'd love to change but think it'd be more hassle than anything and cause extra charges

It shouldnt cost you a penny extra tatts. Definitely check out money saving experts website on that one. I know changing fuel suppliers is one of his big campaigns and he's been on watchdog talking about it a lot so well worth a read of his literature.

I don't know if this will help but I get my money out of the bank every Friday and at home I have a 'bill drawer' that has an envelope for each of my bills in it. I work out the monthly bill divide it by 4 and put money in the envelope each week, eg gas/electric = £88 per month - I pay £22 per week. This way the money is there to put back into the bank when the direct debit is due Its probably a long winded way to do it but I find it better this way as you can't accidently overspend and I know exactly what I have left for the week ahead/food shopping etc

I'm with N Power and I increased our direct debits online. I had to write a reason why, I just put that I thought we were using more electricity than we were paying for. We don't have gas central heating and we pay £170 a month electric. It pains me to say that!!!!

Someone mentioned Surveys. I do surveys online through One Poll. They are only for small amounts, and they won't pay out until you get to £40, but I've had £120 off them since last August, paid straight into my bank account. It's not life changing amounts but every little helps

I also put all our 50ps into a tin, and we seal it for the year and open it at Christmas time. Then we can stick it in the bank and use it for a treat of some sort. You could pick just 10ps or 20ps or whatever and do the same thing. I save coppers as well in a different jar but that won't get changed up for yonks and will go into our long term savings account.